Notorious former gangster Paul Ferris has revealed the hardest fight of his life was going straight after a life of crime.
Now, Ferris, 61, has warned a new generation of organised criminals they should also give up in the face a new breed of high-tech cops. And he has revealed how a new film based on his downfall will show how the gangsters can’t win.
The convicted gunrunner is planning a follow up to The Wee Man – the 2013 hit film starring Martin Compston that told the story of Ferris’s upbringing and descent into a life of crime. But he is gutted his pal Compston won’t be starring in the sequel – because he is too expensive.
Ferris said: “I’ve got a new film coming. Unfortunately, we lost Martin Compston. He went to do Line of Duty and good luck to him. Martin and his agent signed the contract with the BBC, and he’s done brilliant, absolutely fantastic. Personally, I think the production company should have signed him up to a two-film deal. It would be very expensive to bring him back to do part two, but this film isn’t a continuation of the first one.
“It’s a totally separate entity. So I don’t think we’d bring Martin back even if he wanted to do it. It’s a fresh start with new faces, young, up-and-coming talent. This is more of a UK story than a Glasgow-based story. What will grip people in the film in the true crime aspect is that myself and several others in the UK were the first to be arrested by MI5 and the security services in London.”
Ferris forged a career as an enforcer for Glasgow’s Godfather of crime, the late Arthur Thompson, and became one of Scotland’s most feared gangsters. But Ferris claims going straight has been one of the toughest things he’s ever done. After being acquitted of murder, conspiracy, drug trafficking, attempted murder and assault, the notorious gangland figure was finally brought to heel on gun running charges in 1998 with the help of MI5.
The involvement of the intelligence services proved a light bulb moment for the career criminal. Ferris explained: “People ask me when the penny dropped to go straight. I can reflect back to Belmarsh Prison when my solicitor came in with boxes of evidence. There were no names of the witnesses on the documents, just Witness A: Security Service operative with 25 years service.
“When you come to these people’s attention, if you are going to continue, then you may as well spend the rest of your life in prison. Going straight was a conscious decision when I read those security reports. Having lawful employment was the way ahead. It continues to be the hardest thing to do.”
Ferris grew up on the streets of Glasgow’s Blackhill neighbourhood, literally fighting for survival. He began his criminal career in earnest as a teenage getaway driver in a jewellery store heist and, by the time he was 19, he’d already endured a spell in a young offenders’ institution and been enlisted as a debt collector for Thompson.
A key player in a violent Glasgow turf war in the 1980s, Ferris was sent to prison in 1984 on weapons charges. Then, in 1992, he stood trial again, this time accused of murdering Thompson’s son, Arthur Jr – aka ‘Fat Boy’ – who was gunned down outside the family’s home known as the Ponderosa.
Two others, Bobby Glover and Joe ‘Bananas’ Hanlon, would also have been in the dock alongside Ferris had they not been shot dead on the day of Fat Boy’s funeral, each with a bullet to the head and one up the backside, as had been done to Thompson’s son.
As clear a case of retribution as you could get and likely carried out on the orders of Thompson Snr. After the longest and most costly trial in Scottish legal history, costing £4million, Ferris was acquitted of murdering Fat Boy and all other charges. He seemed untouchable – until MI5 stepped in.
Having been under covert surveillance, Ferris was caught in possession of three Mac-10 sub-machine guns and ammunition and was convicted, in 1998, of gun running. Though sentenced to 10 years, he was released from prison under licence in January 2002, convinced his criminal career was over.
He said: “I got involved in the security industry and when they licensed it, I discovered that anybody who had been sentenced to three years or more would never get an SIA badge. So I left that industry and I’m now focused on multimedia. The fact I’ve been crime free for 22 years must demonstrate something. I’m either very good being a criminal and not being caught or I’m not involved in criminality. Going straight and that commitment is probably the hardest thing I’ve done in my life.”
Ferris also features in a new book by celebrated snapper Brian Anderson called Faces 2, documenting some of the most notorious figures from the British underworld stretching back three decades. Many of those featured in the book have done time or are no longer around and Ferris has a warning for the latest generation of hardened criminals taking their place.
He said: “I can only tell you the technical proficiency that I saw in security services and the current court cases with intercepts on EncroChat as well as covert surveillance, if you are in that industry, you’re going to get your fingers burned. You’re going to spend the rest of your life in prison.
“So it was a conscious decision for me to disengage. More than 22 years later, even though Strathclyde Police have gone, Police Scotland are still there. You get national criminal intelligence, you get covert surveillance, there’s MI5. You’ve got all these different agencies.”
He admits some people will be sceptical about his own rehabilitation. Ferris added: “Obviously, people fact check. If I’ve been involved in criminality, surely after 22 years I’d have been arrested before now. So what have I got to prove? Nothing. I was educated in prison and I learned to adapt and move forward so that I can draw a line on my criminal past and look forward to some forms of reengagement back into society.
“If you’re involved in a criminal environment, the last thing you think about is government agencies with unlimited budgets and spyware, bugs, all these things. The technical proficiency law enforcement have got at present is second to none. You’re going to get caught and get your fingers burned.”
●Brian Anderson’s Faces 2 is available from Glasgoweyes.com.
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